Management and Cost Accountant

The Management and Cost Accountant reports to the Finance Manager and is responsible for providing accurate, timely management accounting, costing and operational insights across TRT Manufacturing and relevant Africa hubs. The role owns Revenue-to-Gross-Profit analysis, inventory and creditor reconciliations, labour controls and strategic procurement finance reporting while maintaining reliable Sage X3 data and validated daily/weekly reports. The incumbent partners with Finance, Operations, HR, Procurement and Commercial to control costs, improve margins, reduce waste and cash leakage, and support decisions through reconciled outputs and approvals.

Key Responsibilities

1. Costing and Standard Cost Governance

• Govern standard costs, BOMs, routings, labour/overhead rates and cost centres; coordinate annual cost rolls and updates.
• Obtain Procurement price updates; review movements above 10% for BOM, margin and customer-pricing impact; implement approved costing changes only.
• Analyse purchase-price, usage/yield and conversion variances by site/SKU; retain client/Quality/R&D validation, approvals and costing SOPs.

2. Management Reporting and Performance Insights

• Own Revenue-to-Gross-Profit accounts; reconcile sales, COGS and direct/factory costs to the trial balance and AR controls; explain margin bridges.
• Own the Daily/Weekly Reporting file; validate Operations, HR and Dispatch inputs, resolve gaps and submit by agreed cut-offs.
• Supply GP, labour and working-capital inputs to the consolidated finance pack; maintain KPI/Power BI product, customer, line and hub dashboards.
• Deliver driver-based forecasts and rolling outlooks; highlight risks, opportunities, and required actions.

3. Manufacturing - Finance Partnership

• Reconcile daily labour allocations and SKU costs; report weekly hours, rates, productivity, efficiency, wastage and variances.
• Reconcile fortnightly wages against approved production schedules and verified time and attendance records with HR/Payroll; retain formal sign-off before wage payment processing.
• Partner on OEE, yields, throughput, toll rates and make/buy choices; lead waste/cash-leakage improvements and validate returns/wastage registers.

4. Supply Chain and Third-Party Interface

• Collaborate with third-party distribution and supply chain partner on cost-to-serve and logistics KPIs.
• Model landed cost, warehousing, and distribution charges; align with SLA targets and recovery mechanisms.
• Resolve inventory discrepancies, ageing, and damages/write-offs with accountability across parties.

5. Pricing, Profitability and Commercial Support

• Prepare quotes from validated costs, approved prices and client targets; show conversion margin/value and correct portfolio pricing errors.
• Evaluate business cases for new products and capex; quantify ROI, payback, and sensitivity analyses.
• Conduct product/customer profitability analyses and mix impacts; drive margin improvement actions.

6. Planning, Budgeting and Scenario Modelling

• Co-lead hub/manufacturing budgets; document volume, cost and allocation drivers with Finance, Operations and Procurement.
• Prepare rolling forecasts and volume, FX, input-cost, tariff and mix scenarios; quantify margin, cash, risk and opportunity impacts.
• Model investment/divestment choices by product, client and line; provide creditor, labour and procurement exposure inputs to the 13-week cash plan.

7. Data Quality, Systems and Process Improvement

• Maintain approved Sage X3 Pack/Bulk/item, BOM and cost records; verify GL/credit mappings, units, scrap and pricing.
• Coordinate corrections to sites, MRP, reorder policies, supplier data, lot control and lead times; test downstream sales-order accuracy.
• Log system issues, owners, due dates and evidence; engage Sage support and escalate blockers; maintain SOPs, training, templates and report automation.
• Automate recurring reports and close tasks; standardize templates across hubs.
• Champion continuous improvement (Lean/Kaizen) to simplify and harmonize processes in shared services.

8. Financial Controls and Compliance

• Ensure adherence to Group policies, IFRS principles for relevant areas, and audit readiness.
• Review open items weekly; coordinate wage journals, boiler/generator fuel coding and shipment clearing; independently review asset, depreciation, accrual and provision schedules.
• Oversee joint stock counts, yields and slow/expired-stock investigations; retain IFRS/policy/audit controls, handovers, access and training; escalate dependencies before deadlines.

Role Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance or related field (BCom/BAcc).
• Professional certification preferred: CIMA/CGMA, ACCA, CA(SA)/CA(GH) or equivalent.
• 5-8 years in management and cost accounting in FMCG/manufacturing, ideally toll or contract manufacturing.
• Strong standard costing, BOM/routing, cost allocation, variance analysis and cost-to-serve skills.
• Sage X3/manufacturing ERP competence and advanced Excel/Power BI for analytics and reporting.
• Experience in supplier, inventory, subledger/GL and production payroll reconciliations; IFRS and inventory valuation knowledge.
• Skills in KPIs, budgets, rolling forecasts, pricing, transfer pricing, customer/product profitability and investment appraisal.
• Ability to partner with Operations, HR, Procurement and logistics across entities, countries and time zones.
• Strong governance, audit documentation and problem-solving; manage deadlines, follow up missing inputs and escalate promptly.

Application Question(s):

• Do you have experience managing stakeholders across multiple entities in different countries and time zones?
• Do you have strong standard costing, BOM/routing, cost allocation, variance analysis and cost-to-serve skills?
• Do you have skills in KPIs, budgets, rolling forecasts, pricing, transfer pricing, customer/product profitability and investment appraisal?
• Do you have experience reconciling supplier accounts, inventory, subledger balances to the general ledger, and production payroll?

Education:

• Bachelors (Required)

Experience:

• FMCG/manufacturing, ideally toll or contract manufacturing.: 5 years (Required)
• Sage X3/manufacturing ERP & advanced Excel/Power BI: 2 years (Required)

License/Certification:

• CIMA/CGMA, ACCA, CA(SA)/CA(GH) or equivalent (Preferred)

Work Location: In person